JH._________________"I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours." (Mk 11,23f)

that is actually a hard question to answer, not because I don't remember the sounds, but because there is more than one answer. The Crumar is a signature sound, but my love was in the ARP so I voted that way.

I loved the Elka better than the Crumar... _________________Garret: It's so retro.
EGM: What does retro mean to you?
Parker: Like, old and outdated.Home,My Studio,and another view

Understood.. I've been lucky enough to come across modified Solinas, with inputs to the chorus circuit, and spent some time processing various signals through it. It makes everything shimmer and swirl. I personally, a personal opinion, don't find that the circuits that came after that mimic the ensemble effect of multiple BBD as well.

I haven't voted because I lack experience with most of these, but I am certainly "in" if a PCB comes out of it. What ever the consensus comes to be, I trust the electro-music.community will settle on the right thing. (How many organizations can you say that about? You guys should be running the country (USA), if not the world. JH for President?)

FWIW, I've only heard the chorus in the Moog Opus III, which IIRC uses three SAD512s. That one sounds decent, but again I have nothing to compare to.

But maybe the TCA350 (the modulator chip) is more responsible for that sound than we like. (The nice double lfo too, of course).
I didn't even find a datasheet of the TCA350.

What's about the Polysix Ensemble ?
It's a dense and fat modulation too.

The TCA350 is a quite short BBD line.
But I think later Solinas used the TDA1022 ?

Crumar Performer has the TCA350, too.
Boehm Phasing Rotor 78 has the TDA1022.
I never owned a Solina, but I think both the Crumar and the Boehm make a convincing "Solina" string sound.

The Polysix sounds too dark and dirty in ensemble mode for my taste. I have the FX section of the Polysix as a 19" rackmount effect, and barely use the Ensemble. The Chorus is nice. Best thing, however, is the FX section with all FX switched off. The signal goes thru a LM13600-based compander then, which adds the tiniest amount of distortion and "edge" to my Wurlitzer piano.

JH._________________"I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours." (Mk 11,23f)

I like the Solina better, but chose this deliberately to have something different. (I already had 2 Ensemble FX with the Solina method.)

JH._________________"I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours." (Mk 11,23f)

Understood.. I've been lucky enough to come across modified Solinas, with inputs to the chorus circuit, and spent some time processing various signals through it. It makes everything shimmer and swirl. I personally, a personal opinion, don't find that the circuits that came after that mimic the ensemble effect of multiple BBD as well.

Everybody likes something different.

I like them all.
The Solina, of course. And unless there's an overwhelming majority for the ARP in the end, I'd rather go for the Solina, because it's the classic sound.

I fell in love with the Onmi when I played a Piano / String combination thru its ensemble. (Not sure if it's called piano; it was something percussive at least.)

My favorite string sound is from The Korg Lambda, though: Just the 3 VCOs that sync and are repeatedly knocked out of sync by the LFO. With the ugly on-board BBD effect turned off. Sometimes I run it thru the Boehm, when I want Solina lush-ness.

JH._________________"I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours." (Mk 11,23f)

I like them all. Smile
The Solina, of course. And unless there's an overwhelming majority for the ARP in the end, I'd rather go for the Solina, because it's the classic sound.

Why bother having a vote then? Make what you want!

Perhaps the Omni isn't "popular" as much as it is "familiar". A lot of people probably don't know a Solina from a Solaris. Younger members wouldn't necessarily know either. When I played the Omni (and I still own a PolySix, and I always managed the ensemble effect meself) it was like nothing else I had heard, and I am familiar with ARP's various products, particularly the String Ensemble. Anyway, "classic" applies to any of them._________________Garret: It's so retro.
EGM: What does retro mean to you?
Parker: Like, old and outdated.Home,My Studio,and another view

I just made a short demo of the Boehm Phasing Rotor 78, in Ensemble mode, which is an emulation of the Solina chorus as far as I can tell.

First two chords are dry:
I played the Korg Lambda with all its oscillators in sync (i.e. without the lush modulation that's normally typical for Lambda strings), to have a fairly dry and sterile input signal.

Next two chords are with the Boehm switched on. (Is this close enough to Solina?)

_________________"I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours." (Mk 11,23f)

Ok, but does this mean it's close enough to the real Solina?
This is important; please all of you be honest with me, if it's not close enough just tell me so.

What you hear in the demo is a TDA1022-based Solina clone from Boehm, for which I have complete schematics.

I have official schematics for the TCA350-based Solina, and I have partial schematics of the TDA1022-based Solina that someone else has drawn from the circuit board, probably with some loose ends / question marks.

If I go for it, I want to do it right.

JH._________________"I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours." (Mk 11,23f)

The thick phasing at the end of that Boehm sample sounds fantastic! I want that sound. So is this a phaser or a chorus?

That's not part of the ensemble FX, though:
"The rest is Lambda -> Schulte Compact A clone -> Boehm "

(I thought the Compact A brings out the Enselble FX's qualities nicely, so I added this as an extra.)

JH._________________"I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours." (Mk 11,23f)

You cannot post new topics in this forumYou cannot reply to topics in this forumYou cannot edit your posts in this forumYou cannot delete your posts in this forumYou cannot vote in polls in this forumYou cannot attach files in this forumYou can download files in this forum

Please support our site. If you click through and buy from our affiliate partners, we earn a small commission.